The Story of the Philippines Part 26

"The United States will occupy and hold the City, Bay, and Harbor of Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which shall determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines.

_Article_ IV.

"Spain will immediately evacuate Cuba, Porto Rico, and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and to this end each government will, within ten days after the signing of this protocol, appoint commissioners, and the commissioners so appointed shall, within thirty days after the signing of this protocol, meet at Havana for the purpose of arranging and carrying out the details of the aforesaid evacuation of Cuba and the adjacent Spanish islands; and each government will, within ten days after the signing of this protocol, also appoint other commissioners, who shall, within thirty days after the signing of this protocol, meet at San Juan, Porto Rico, for the purpose of arranging and carrying out the details of the aforesaid evacuation of Porto Rico and other islands now under, Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies.

_Article_ V.

"The United States and Spain will each appoint not more than five commissioners to treat of peace, and the commissioners so appointed shall meet at Paris not later than Oct. 1, 1898, and proceed to the negotiation and conclusion of a treaty of peace, which treaty shall be subject to ratification according to the respective const.i.tutional forms of the two countries.

_Article_ VI.

"Upon the conclusion and signing of this protocol hostilities between the two countries shall be suspended, and notice to that effect shall be given as soon as possible by each government to the commanders of its military and naval forces.

"Done at Was.h.i.+ngton in duplicate, in English and in French, by the undersigned, who have hereunto set their hands and seals, the 12th day of August, 1898.

"William R. Day.

Jules Cambon."

CHAPTER XVI

The Peace Jubilee.

The Lessons of War in the Joy Over Peace in the Celebrations at Chicago and Philadelphia--Orations by Archbishop Ireland and Judge Emory Speer--The President's Few Words of Thrilling Significance--The Parade of the Loyal League, and Clover Club Banquet at Philadelphia--Address by the President--The Hero Hobson Makes a Speech--Fighting Bob Evans'

Startling Battle Picture--The Destruction of Cervera's Fleet--The Proclamation of Thanksgiving.

The lessons of war--that which has been through it accomplished for the country--the new lands over which our sovereignty is established--the gain in the national character--the increased immensity of the outlook of destiny, found impressive expression in the peace jubilee, the President of the United States partic.i.p.ating, and interpreting history with dignity, in great Chicago, the giant of the West and North, and Philadelphia, the holy city of Independence Hall and the liberty bell.

Of the celebrations of Peace with honor and victory, the first was that at Chicago, and it will be memorable for remarkable speeches in which many orators rose to the height of the occasion, their speeches worthy of celebrity and certain to give imperishable pa.s.sages to the school books of the future. We have to pa.s.s over much of meritorious distinction, and confine ourselves in the selections for these pages, to the utterances of the President--Archbishop Ireland, whose golden periods of Americanism ring through the land, and the Southern orator, Judge Emory Speer, of Georgia, whose patriotism springs forth and elevates the n.o.bility of his thought, and touches with sacred fire the ruddy glow of his eloquence.

"Lead, my country, in peace!" was Archbishop Ireland's pa.s.sionate exclamation, the key-note of his oration. He said:

"War has pa.s.sed; peace reigns. Stilled over land and sea is the clang of arms; from San Juan to Manila, fearless and triumphant, floats the star spangled banner. America, 'Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord hath done great things.' America, with whole heart and soul, celebrate thy jubilee of peace.

"Welcome to America, sweet, beloved peace; welcome to America, honored, glorious victory. Oh, peace, thou art heaven's gift to men. When the Savior of humanity was born in Bethlehem the sky sang forth, 'Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and on earth peace and good will to men.' Peace was offered to the world through Christ, and when the spirit of Christ is supreme, there is universal peace--peace among men, peace among nations.

"Oh, peace, so precious art thou to humanity that our highest ideal of social felicity must ever be thy sovereignty upon earth. Pagan statesmans.h.i.+p, speaking through pagan poetry, exclaims: 'The best of things which it is given to know is peace; better than a thousand triumphs is the simple gift of peace.' The regenerated world shall not lift up sword against sword; neither shall they he exercised any more in war.

"Peace is the normal flow of humanity's life, the healthy pulsation of humanity's social organism, the vital condition of humanity's growth and happiness.

"'O first of human blessings and supreme, Fair Peace! how lovely, how delightful thou.

Oh peace! thou soul and source of social life, Beneath whose calm inspiring influence Science his views enlarges, art refines, And swelling commerce opens all her ports.

Blessed be the man divine who gave us thee.'

"The praise of peace is proclaimed beyond need of other words, when men confess that the only possible justification of war is the establishment of peace. Peace, we prize thee.

"'But the better thou, The richer of delight, sometime the more Inevitable war.'

"'Pasis imponero morem'--to enforce the law of peace: this, the sole moral argument which G.o.d and humanity allow for war. O peace, welcome again to America.

"War--how dreadful thou art! I shall not, indeed, declare thee to be immoral, ever unnecessary, ever accursed. No; I shall not so arraign thee as to mete plenary condemnation to the whole past history of nations, to the whole past history of my own America. But that thou art ever dreadful, ever barbarous, I shall not deny. War! Is it by cunning design--in order to hide from men thy true nature--that pomp and circ.u.mstance attend thy march; that poetry and music set in brightest colors, the rays of light struggling through thy heavy darkness, that history weaves into threads of richest glory the woes and virtues of thy victims? Stripped of thy show and tinsel, what art thou but the slaying of men?--the slaying of men by the thousands, aye, often by the tens, by the hundreds of thousands.

"With the steady aim and relentless energy tasking science to its utmost ingenuity, the mult.i.tudes of men to their utmost endurance, whole nations work day and night, fitting ourselves for the quick and extensive killing of men. This preparation for war. Armies meet on the field of battle; shot and sh.e.l.l rend the air; men fall to the ground like leaves in autumnal storms, bleeding, agonizing, dying; the earth is reddened by human blood; the more gory the earth beneath the tread of one army the louder the revel of victory in the ranks of the other. This, the actual conflict of war. From north to south, from east to west, through both countries whose flags were raised over the field of battle, homes not to be numbered mourned in soul-wrecking grief, for husband, father, son or brother who sank beneath the foeman's steel or yielded life within the fever tent, or who, surviving shot and malady, carries back to his loved ones a maimed or weakened body. This, the result of war.

"Reduced to the smallest sacrifice of human life the carnage of the battlefields, some one has died and some one is bereft. 'Only one killed,' the headline reads. The glad news speeds. The newsboys cry: 'Killed only one.' 'He was my son. What were a thousand to this one--my only son.'

"It was Wellington who said: 'Take my word for it, if you had seen but one day of war you would pray to Almighty G.o.d that you might never see such a thing again.' It was Napoleon who said: 'The sight of a battlefield after the fight is enough to inspire princes with a love of peace and a horror of war.'

"War, be thou gone from my soul's sight! I thank the good G.o.d that thy ghastly specter stands no longer upon the thresholds of the homes of my fellow countrymen in America, or my fellow beings in distant Andalusia. When, I ask heaven, shall humanity rise to such heights of reason and of religion that war shall be impossible, and stories of battlefields but the saddening echoes of primitive ages of the race?

"And yet, while we await that blessed day, when embodied justice shall sit in judgment between peoples as between individuals, from time to time conditions more repellant than war may confront a nation, and to remove such conditions as the solemn dictates of reason and religion impose was as righteous and obligatory. Let the life of a nation or the integrity of its territory be menaced, let the honor of a nation be a.s.sailed, let the grievous crime against humanity be perpetrated within reach of a nation's flag or a nation's arm, reiterated appeals or argument and diplomacy failing, what else remains to a nation which is not so base as to court death or dishonor but to challenge the fortunes of war and give battle while strength remains in defense of 'its hearthstones and its altars'? War, indeed, is dreadful; but let it come; the sky may fall, but let justice be done. War is no longer a repudiation of peace, but the means to peace--to the soul peace a self-sacrificing people may enjoy--peace with honor.

"A just and necessary war is holy. The men who at country's call engage in such a war are the country's heroes, to whom must be given unstinted grat.i.tude and unstinted praise. The sword in their hands is the emblem of self-sacrifice and of valor; the flag which bears them betokens their country and bids them pour out in oblation to purest patriotism the life blood of their hearts; the shroud which spreads over the dead of the battlefield is the mantle of fame and of glory.

"Happy the nation which has the courage of a just war, no less than that of a just peace, whose sons are able and willing to serve her with honor alike in war and in peace. Happy the nation whose jubilee of peace, when war has ceased, is also a jubilee of victory.

"'We love peace, not war, but when we go to war we send it the best and bravest of the country.' These words, spoken a few days ago by the chief magistrate of America, embody a great principle of American life.

Six months ago the congress of the United States declared that in the name of humanity war should be waged in order to give to the island of Cuba a stable and independent government. Magnificent patriotism of America. The people of the United States at once rose in their might. They argued not, they hesitated not. America had spoken; theirs was not to judge but to obey. In a moment the money of America, the lives of America, were at the disposal of the chief magistrate of the nation, whose embarra.s.sment was the too generous response to his appeal for means to bring victory to the nation's flag. America had spoken. Partisan politics, sectional disputes instantly were stilled beneath the majesty of her voice. Oft it had been whispered that we had a North and a South. When America spoke we knew that we were but one people; that all were Americans. It had been whispered that social and economic lines were hopelessly dividing the American people, and that patriotism was retreating before the growth of cla.s.s interests and cla.s.s prejudices.

"But when America spoke there was no one in the land who was not an American; the laborer dropped his hammer; the farmer turned from his plow; the merchant forgot his counting-room; the millionaire closed the door of his mansion; and side by side, equal in love of country; their resolve to serve her, they marched to danger and to death. America can never doubt the united loyalty of her whole population, nor the power which such united loyalty puts into her hand.

"And what may I not say in eulogy of the sentiment of humanity, that in union with their patriotism swayed the hearts of the American people, and in their vision invested the war with the halo of highest and most sacred duty to fellow-men? I speak of the great mult.i.tude, whom we name the American people. They had been told of dire suffering by neighboring people--struggling for peace and liberty; they believed that only through war could they acquit themselves of the sacred duty of rescuing that people from their sufferings. I state a broad, undeniable fact. The dominating, impelling motive of the war in the depths of the national heart of America was the sentiment of humanity. The people of America offered their lives through no sordid ambition of pecuniary gain, of conquest of territory, of national aggrandizement. Theirs was the high-born ambition to succor fellowmen.

"What strength and power America was found to possess. When war was declared, so small was her army, so small her navy that the thought of war coming upon the country affrighted for the moment her own citizens and excited the derisive smiles of foreigners. Of her latent resources no doubt was possible; but how much time was needed to utilize them, and, meanwhile, how much humiliation was possible. The President waved his wand; instantly armies and navies were created as by magic. Within a few weeks a quarter of a million of men were formed into regiments and army corps; vessels of war and transport s.h.i.+ps were covering the seas; upon water and land battles were fought and great victories won, from one side of the globe to the other. I know not of similar feats in history. What if in this bewildering rush of a nation to arms one department or another of the national administration was unable to put in a moment its hand upon all the details which a thoroughly rounded equipment required? The wonder is that the things that were done could at all have been done, and that what was done so quickly could have been done so well. The wonder is that this sudden creation of such vast military forces was possible, even in America.

"What prowess in action, what intellect in planning, what skill in execution, were displayed by soldiers and seamen, by men and officers. Magnificent the sweep of Dewey's squadron in Manila harbor. Magnificent the broadsides from Sampson's fleet upon Cervera's fleeing s.h.i.+ps. Magnificent the charge of regiments of regular infantry, and of Roosevelt's riders up the hills of El Caney. Never daunted, never calculating defeat, every man determined to die or conquer, every man knowing his duty, how to do it--the soldiers and seamen of America were invincible. Spanish fleets and Spanish armies vanished before them as mists before the morning sun; the nations of the earth stood amazed in the presence of such quick and decisive triumphs, at what America had done and at what, they now understood, America could do.